So....Yesterday was day 3. It was also the 3rd day in a row that I had to be up at or before 6am and I had to work until 9. I will admit that most of Wednesday was a blur. All I remember is that the flurry of textbook questions was replaced by a flurry of E-ID/Word 2007/Computer access related questions. Many of the E-ID issues are frustrating and they take a long time to resolve. Most frustrating is the fact that, I AM NOT A TRAINED IT PERSON! I have enough knowledge to solve most access problems, but if the problem is beyond my ability, I need to call IT. But, unfortunately, the IT help desk only opperates from 8am-5pm and many of my reference shifts run from 5pm-9pm. So, occasionally, there is a student that needs access to blackboard or their school e-mail and I just can't do anything for them. And I feel just awful about that, especially when they have homework that they need to do. So day 3 was long and mildly stressful.
Day 4: I got to sleep in until 9am! So, naturally I feel a lot better than I did yesterday. I worked at Texas State today, so I took the shuttle bus down the hill to campus, with my boyfriend Collin, who was teaching his Comp II classes today. I spent the first hour or so reading over the operator's manuals for RefTracker and RefChatter, and then I met with the head Instruction Librarian, Lorin. She gave me a little overview of what they cover in instruction and then we picked out some times that I could come observe her and other Librarians during their sessions. I am VERY excited to start instruction, I have a lot of ideas about it, but I feel like I really need some experience to see if my ideas can be put into practice.
The rest of the afternoon was spent going over the reference training sheet with the Head Reference Librarian, Lisa. Although I worked as an LA for Texas State before, some of the policies are a little different for librarians than they were for LAs. At 2 we went to a reception for the University Archives which just opened a new space up on the 5th floor. The space is really nice, but like most archives, even with a new space, they still need more room. We also visited another librarian on the 5th floor; she had just moved into her new office because her old office has been transformed into an suite for the new Director of Research and Learning, who will be hired shortly. Then, from 4 to 5 we had a meeting with the Information Literacy team where we discussed assessment. The University is being evaluated this year to renew their accreditation through SACS (Southern Association of Colleges......something). Anyway, there is an Information Literacy component, so the library is being pushed to evaluate their classes, as well as to find a way to assess the student body as a whole, perhaps by using standardized testing for in-coming Freshmen and out-going seniors. It was all very interesting. We also talked about having some sort of document that laid out specific outcomes and expectations for classes in different disciplines, with the goal of being able to assess all classes in a meaningful way.
Now I'm at the Reference Desk until 10. Things are really slow, mostly because, here in San Marcos the weekend starts on Thursday night. Many bars around here have specials and they call it college night. Actually, 2 years ago, the last time I worked here, Texas State did not have classes on Fridays at all. But they reinstated Friday classes because many students were going home on the weekends and attendance at games had gone down significantly. So that wast the last couple of days in the life. Its been an exciting week for me, but I'll be glad when the weekend comes so I can rest up.
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